


Can i get a light?

by loveandliterature



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men: The Animated Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drunk Sex, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Friendship, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mental Anguish, Mental Health Issues, Mutant Powers, Original Character(s), Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Personal Growth, Possession, Possibly Unrequited Love, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, time period: 1995 - 1999
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:27:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29677707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveandliterature/pseuds/loveandliterature
Summary: Naomi Morrison - a troubled 21 year old mutant girl - finds herself going on an unexpected journey of self discovery with a team of ragtag mutants; who unknowingly help her learn how to love others and herself. It's a coming of age story about learning to move on from the past into a brighter future.it's already tough enough to be a young adult, but it's even tougher to be a young adult mutant.
Relationships: Jean Grey/Scott Summers, Kurt Wagner/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 3





	Can i get a light?

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally going to be a series of comics // i am an illustrator// but with having to juggle the pandemic, school, and my social life, i didn't have time to make such a project so i'm writing it here.  
> perhaps if this story gets finished and if people legit like it, i may turn it into a comic series.
> 
> my writing schedule is a bit messy right now, but expect new chapters every other Sunday. (today is an exception because i have a day off from school.)
> 
> Feel free to give your Nitpicks and opinions, i'm very open for that.  
> I want this story to be the best it can be, so don't be scared to say what you think.  
> -  
> -  
> -  
> -
> 
> Anyways, with that out of the way
> 
> please enjoy the story of "Can i get a light?"

The wind that blew through the city of New York was always dry and cold at this time of year.  
Having lived in the city almost all her life, Naomi usually wasn’t bothered by it. Maybe a tourist would find it bitter and unappealing but on a normal November night Naomi wouldn’t feel that at all.  
However, this night was very different. With no proper warm clothes, no pocket money for a hot meal and no place to stay, She now understood how uninviting the air could truly be. Naomi was currently standing in an alleyway phone booth, trying to give a call to someone who could help.

Ramming her hand against the metal case of the pay phone Naomi cursed under her breath “come the fuck on...I gotta have something in here” Naomi dug her gloved hand deep into her mostly empty purse scraping to find something, anything that could let her use this god damn pay phone.  
Finally feeling the round hard quarter she was looking for, the tight tension around Naomi's chest eased off quicker than a flash as she slammed the quarter into the phone’s coin slot.  
She proceeded to quickly pound in the phone number she needed to call.  
Naomi grumbled“God I hope Lee didn’t change her number”. 

“Ring, ring”

“Ring, ring”

“ Ring, ring”

“Click”

After about three rings, a youthful woman’s voice finally answered the phone“Hellooo, jubilee here”  
“Lee! Oh thank god you picked up!” Naomi blurted out.  
The voice on the other end gave an annoyed sigh “may I ask who’s calling…?”, “it’s Naomi...Naomi Morrison, remember me?”.  
There was a short pause followed by the girl on the other end shifting her tone to a much more bubbly one“ Oh my god, Naomi? I haven’t heard from you in so long! It’s so good to talk to you! What’s up?”  
Naomi gave a deep exhale of relief to hear her childhood friend’s voice after so long. However, a wave of guilt washed over her as she was calling for a favour.  
“Well I hate to be calling just for this...but I really need your help…”.  
“Well, what is it?”.

Naomi quickly expressed to Jubilee that she didn’t have time to explain the full situation she was in, as the time on the pay phone was limited and she only had that one quarter.  
“Look lee, I know it’s short notice...but I have nowhere else to go and-” She was promptly cut off by jubilee “ hey, don’t worry the place I’m staying at totally welcomes new people. And I’d feel like crap if I just left my friend out in the cold.”  
Naomi felt like she could just jump for joy at how things were turning out “Holy shit thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me.”  
“It’s no problem, really! Plus I’ve been dying to see you again! You said you were at West 40th Street and 8th Avenue. Right? I live in New Jersey now, so I’ll be a little while…”  
Naomi muttered “Okay but try your best to be quick...this place is totally dangerous, and if one of the people around here were to find out I’m a mutant...then i'm gonna be in big trouble.”  
“Right, got it. I’ll do the best I can for you. I’ll see you in a bit”.  
“See ya, lee”

“Click”

As she placed the phone back in its holder a shiver ran through her body.  
The blistering cold was now starting to truly bite at Naomi’s burnt skin.  
She would have used her abilities to warm herself up but, mutants weren’t welcome around Manhattan; so if anyone were to catch her lighting even a small flame with her bare hands they would have her head.  
Even if she was completely alone, her powers didn’t work properly in the cold anyway, she needed her skin to either be sweaty or moist to make a proper flame.  
Stepping out of the phone booth, she walked to the brick wall of the alleyway and huddled against it.  
It was then that Naomi really noticed that a knitted jacket, a Cotton t-shirt, and a pair of tight jeans was an Awful thing to be wearing in this weather.  
Despite having that layer of clothes on her body, she felt utterly exposed.  
There were people scattered around the intersection; ladies of the night, thugs, and druggies. Those people were intimidating on their own but to have them giving glances and side eyes at her made her feel vulnerable. No, these strangers didn’t know that she was a mutant, but Naomi couldn’t help but let her paranoia run wild. 

“Do they sense that I’m a mute?”

“Is it my burns that are drawing their attention?”

“Or is it that I’m a young woman standing alone at night?”

Before long Naomi had completely lost track of time as she was completely absorbed in her worries, keeping her attention on her surroundings.  
She didn’t know if it had only been 30 minutes or 2 hours.  
However long it had been didn’t matter now though, as she saw a big yellow Jeep Wrangler pull up in front of her.  
She hesitated for a minute, but as the window rolled down, she was relieved to see the friendly face of jubilee giving a smile, and waving her over.  
“Come on! Come on! I can’t stay parked here for very long”.  
Desperate for the warmth of Jubilee’s vehicle Naomi practically sprinted into the Jeep, climbing her way to the passenger seat.  
As she settled into the seat and felt the warm air surrounding her she could only stutter out a repetitive sputter of “OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod”.  
Jubilee pressed her hand up against Naomi’s arm and almost immediately recoiled at the cold she felt.  
“Jeez Nai, you feel about as cold as an ice cube!!”, “yeah I know, it's freezing out there”.

Naomi took a long look at jubilee. It had been a long while since she had seen her in person; about two years to be precise. Despite having the same jovial expression and friendly exterior she had changed quite a bit. Lee now sported short hair, a long yellow trench coat and a pink visor - and was noticeably taller. However the biggest surprise to Naomi was the fact that jubilee had her own car, and a nice one at that. It had leather seats, with a stereo and an A/c, it had it all.

It was quiet in the car for a long while.

Naomi couldn’t help but feel like a big jerk for not calling sooner. Why did she wait so long to talk to Jubilee?  
She wanted to explain what had happened, but that felt like a selfish thing for her to do at that point.  
She hadn’t reached out to her in 2 years and when she finally did it was for a favour. Finally building up the guts to speak She shifted slightly in her seat as she decided to break the silence “So…you're living in New Jersey now? When did that happen?”  
Jubilee hummed as she thought of her answer “Mm, I’ve been living here for a while now actually. I’m also finally not surfing foster home couches anymore” lee chuckled.  
Naomi’s curiosity peaked at this point “so you’re not living with foster parents?” Jubilee’s smile widened as she continued “nope! My living situation is way better now, I’m actually rooming with a team of other mutants now”.  
It suddenly clicked in Naomi’s head, she was most likely staying in some hostel for mutants. “Ohh, so that’s why they’re willing to let me stay on such short notice, you told them I’m a mute too, yeah?”.  
Jubilee’s expression shifted into a slightly perturbed expression, responding to Naomi’s question with a “yeah! Totally!” That was louder than it needed to be.

Naomi knew for sure now that something was wrong.  
After all, she had known Jubilee for almost all her life.  
She knew her like the back of her hand.  
However, Naomi didn’t press.  
She felt like - due to the present circumstances - that it would be inappropriate to do, so, she was set on asking Lee about it later.  
An awkward silence fell over the two girls once more before Jubilee fumbled out “you're only staying for one night though, right?”.  
Naomi rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “well yeah I was thinking that I would stay where you are just for tonight - i mean - I wouldn’t wanna trouble you more than this”.  
Jubilee just gave a nod in response to the dismay of Naomi. 

She decided to give into the overwhelming awkward atmosphere and stay quiet; opting to turn her head and look out the jeep window.  
It had started to rain on their way to New Jersey.  
The highway they were on wasn’t really a sight for sore eyes, but the rain mixed with the saturated light coming from the street lamps was oddly charming. This feeling didn’t last long though, as she was reminded that not so long ago she was standing in the outdoors struggling to keep herself afloat in the bitter cold.  
Snapping her attention back to the inside of the car jubilee asked;

“Mind if I turn on some tunes?”

“No, not at all”

Out from the speakers of the stereo came a soft acoustic guitar, and some keys.  
The tune was familiar to Naomi, she knew she had heard it somewhere before.  
Nevertheless, it helped to ease off the tension that was in the air.  
She listened close to the lyrics as she dared to once more gazed out the window.

“I've been through the desert On a horse with no name”

“It felt good to be out of the rain”

“In the desert, you can remember your name.”

“'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain”

Naomi now remembered the tune as something her foster father would listen to on his record player.  
She remembered that he would play all sorts of songs from the 1970 and before, but he liked this one the most.  
Though she didn’t remember back fondly on her foster father the song was still a comfort.  
Something nostalgic, something that remembered a time when she at least had a home.

After a while Naomi noticed how she hadn’t fully taken in how the scenery around them had changed. Instead of an industrial highway they were now in a more prestigious area.  
A lot more hedges and trees than there were before, and the beat up apartment buildings and rundown gas stations turned into houses and restaurants.  
Before Naomi knew it, Jubilee was now turning onto a side street that had big houses and manors.  
She felt a spark of excitement and anticipation.  
She had never left New York.  
She never had the money to do so, and living in Manhattan big mansions were hard to come by. The only thought running through Naomi’s head was

“Jesus jubilee, how were you able to score a place to live around here?”

Lee broke Naomi’s thoughts by announcing that they were at their destination. She couldn’t properly see the mansion they had stopped at.  
the walls surrounding the perimeter of the place were high and filled with shrubbery and the gates that guarded the entrance had thick golden rusty bars on it - not to mention that the building itself was far away from the gates.  
“ woah this is where you’re living..?” Naomi spoke in awe.  
“Yup! It’s pretty stylin’ right?” Jubilee said with a hint of pride.  
Naomi nodded quickly and watched Lee roll down the Jeep’s window.  
In front of that window there was a small metal box on a pole that held a buzzer, a keypad and a small speaker.  
Jubilee used the keypad to type in a code of sorts, causing the gates to snap open, making the rusty metal of the gate give a high pitched creak. As the car pushed forward down the driveway which curved around the mansion in a semicircle form, finally got a look at where she would be staying for the night.  
It was huge.  
The mansion had magenta bricks and clean white cement made up the small canopy that hung over the main entrance. The building was lined with large flowering maple bushes; and on the far left side, Naomi was sure she saw a green house of sorts  
The previous problems, tensions and awkwardness was forgotten for a moment, being replaced with a sense of childlike wonder.  
She Gawked at the sheer atmosphere of the estate, she had never seen anything like this in person.  
It was nice for Naomi to feel something other than shame, fear, or, unease.

Naomi was expecting Jubilee to just pull up to the front entrance and let her out but she drove all the way to the end of the driveway to a garage.  
It was a little odd but Naomi didn’t mind it too much.  
Finally entering the garage and parking the car, Naomi reached to unbuckle her seat belt. But before she could, the door to the garage swung open like a jump scare in B rated horror movies. 

“ Jubilee, just what do you think you’re doing?!”

Jubilee moved out of the car quicker than a flash leaving Naomi a mess of feelings. Things seemed so confusing...until it finally clicked in Naomi’s mind what Jubilee had done.  
Why she drove straight to the garage rather than the front door, and why She had dodged her questions about her housemates being okay with letting her in. She didn’t tell them.  
As she let her feelings settle she turned her focus outside the car to see jubilee arguing with a rather tall dark skinned woman. The woman had long and wavy Snow White hair and spoke with refined gusto.  
Naomi listened to the argument that had started between the woman and Lee.

“You don’t say what you're doing or where you’re going late at night and you take Logan’s Jeep? I thought you said you wouldn’t act impulsively anymore after what happened last time?”

“No! It’s different this time Ororo, I swear! I was picking up a friend! She had no place to go, and was in a bad part of New York! She’s a mutant just like me!!”

There was silence for a moment as the woman gave a sigh as she snapped her eyes over to meet Naomi’s.  
As Naomi took a closer look at the woman, she could barely see the pupils in her eyes as they were so faded. It was intimidating to say the least.  
The woman’s tone changed to a more soft one “Step out of the car won’t you?” She spoke straight to Naomi.  
Naomi hesitantly got out of the car, and slowly walked towards the woman. She gently put her hand on Naomi’s back gently guiding her to the door.  
“Please, come in and have a seat”. As Naomi stepped through the door the woman turned back to Jubilee “I’ll deal with you later”. The woman followed Naomi in, leaving Jubilee to stand and huff at what transpired.

**Author's Note:**

> FYI: this story takes place around the mid-to-late 90's (as that time period is when my fav version of the x-men takes place).
> 
> I may also come back and edit the chapters slightly, based on my own feelings and critiques iv'e gotten; so feel free to re-read the chapters while the story is being continued.
> 
> \- L&L


End file.
